AFTER YEARS of waste and profligate spending, the turkeys are coming home to roost in Government. Reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General that itemised bad planning, lack of oversight and poor value for money were shrugged off by governments so flush with cash they thought the party would never end. Now that the downturn has arrived, Ministers are flailing about and proposing reforms that should have been implemented years ago.
This new climate of fiscal rectitude claimed its first victim during the week when Fás chief executive Rody Molloy was persuaded to resign. He and some senior Fás executives had spent unwisely and too well in the United States, while failing to ensure that proper procurement and corporate affairs procedures were followed here at home. Internal audits, now under way, are likely to contribute to Opposition agitation and ministerial hand-washing. It is what we have come to expect. But when the dust settles, will anything have changed? Will the practice of stuffing State boards with inappropriate and supine political appointees end? Will chief executives who think they can walk on water be called to account? Will ministers accept ultimate responsibility? On the basis of past performances, it seems unlikely.
If the Government had a bad week, Fine Gael also had its moments. Enda Kenny emerged from a successful party conference all fired up and rarin' to go. But when the Fás controversy spilled into the Dáil, Fine Gael appeared to lose the plot. Rather than respond in a measured and statesmanlike manner to Government ineptitude and public sector extravagance, it went for broke and allowed Leo Varadkar to demand the resignation of Mary Harney because her hair had been blow-dried in Florida at Fás expense. Not very balanced, especially when you consider the largesse enjoyed by all Oireachtas members. But splitting the Progressive Democrats from Fianna Fáil and weakening the Government was too attractive a prospect to resist.
Elsewhere, Richard Bruton laid into the Government's much-vaunted public service reform agenda for failing to put the consumer first. And he continued to set the tone for a recapitalisation of the banks as the Taoiseach and his Minister for Finance struggled to show they were in control.
The rapidly fragmenting economic landscape found the Labour Party in a déjà vu situation. Having championed nationalisation of the banks in the 1970s - and been excoriated for it - it gazed in amazement as the US led the charge in doing just that. But even as debate on the nature of recapitalisation got under way, the recently concluded national wage agreement began to unravel. The Construction Industry Federation opted out and proposed a 10 per cent cut in wages. And while the trade unions expressed outrage and demanded that the Government impose penalties, the harsh truth is that across-the-board wage increases may not be appropriate at a time when emigration is forecast to resume next year and unemployment to rise to 8 per cent. New realities demand fresh thinking.